消费梦中的僭越——盖茨比自我身份的想象与拼接

Transgression in the Consumer Dream: Illusion and Collage of Gatsby's Identity

自我身份主要是指个人在阶级、性别、种族等层面的文化归属问题。盖茨比之谜是一个自我身份构建的问题,也就是他对"我是谁"这个问题的探索和回答。本文采用消费主义文化研究的视角,通过文本细读,分析盖茨比的身份之谜,探讨人物形象解读的另一种可能性。盖茨比深受消费文化制造的景观的影响,用衣饰、名车、住宅等物质作为本质的外显,脱胎换骨,构建了一个虚假而虚弱的自我形象。盖茨比的自我身份建构超越了文本设定并体现的20世纪20年代美国社会的期待视野和接受范围,成了一种僭越。他"僭越"一切社会现实,一切政治经济障碍来寻求"再生"注定是要失败的。他的死,与其说是他个体生命的终结,不如说是他"僭越"理想的破灭,是对其身份错置的惩罚。

Identity at large showcases the individual＇s class, gender, and ethnicity. To understand the mystery of Gatsby is to decipher his own construction of identity, or, better, to grasp his quest and answer of ＂who I am.＂ This paper, taking the perspective of consumer culture studies, aims to offer a new possibility of interpreting Gatsby＇s construction of identity in close textual reading. The self-image Gatsby invents with his attire, limo, and grand residence is at best false and feeble, reflecting the tremendous impact of the spectacles in consumer culture with its inherent limitation upon his life. Gatsby＇s self construction goes beyond the vision and expectation set aside by and shown in the 1920s American society, hence becomes a transgression. He is doomed to fail when he transgresses all the social reality as well as political and economical barriers. His death is less the end of his life than the disillusionment of his transgressive desire, and the punishment for his dislocation of identity.